Bhubaneswar: Moving a step forward in conduct of Urban Polls, the Housing & Urban Development Department on Monday issued final notification on reservation of the post of Chairperson in 107 Municipalities and Notified Area Councils (NACs) of the State.
As per the notification, the office of Chairperson in 9 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) has been reserved for Scheduled Caste (woman), five for Scheduled Tribe (woman) and three for Scheduled Tribe.
Similarly, the chairperson post in 40 other ULBs have been kept reserved for women candidates while 42 others are kept unreserved.
The Department has issued the final notification after seeking objections/ suggestions from all stakeholders and the general public on the draft reservation list.
“In pursuance of sub-section (4) of Section 47 of the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950 (Odisha Act 23 of 1950) read with sub-rule (6) of rule 67 of the said rules, the State Government do hereby reserve the offices of Chairpersons for the categories,” read the notification.
The reservation of the offices of the Chairperson of 107 Municipalities were worked out based on the provisions of Article 243 T of the Constitution of India read with sub-section(4) of Section 47 of the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950, it said.
Few days ago, the H&UD Department had reserved the Mayor seat in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) for women candidates while Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) Mayor post has been kept unreserved.
Notably, the State Government has amended the Odisha Municipal Rules, 1994, to hold direct election for the posts of Mayors of municipal corporations and Chairpersons of Municipalities and NACs during the upcoming poll.
